Donor support helps avert food crisis in Niger but more required – UN official

A food crisis in Niger has been averted as a result of generous donor response, intervention by the United Nations, the Government’s facilitation of the humanitarian effort and good rainfall, but the situation remains fragile, the top UN humanitarian official said today.

Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told reporters in New York that some five million people have benefited from food aid, but malnutrition rates remained high and many communities around the country require continued assistance.

More than 250,000 have been admitted to nutrition centres since the beginning of this year, she said.

Health also remained a concern with an outbreak of cholera and malaria cases on the rise with the onset of the rainy season. More than 1,100 cases of cholera have been reported and the incidence of malaria had spiked from around one million cases last year to over two million cases this year, Ms. Amos added.

“In the immediate and medium term there is a need to continue responding to the existing acute vulnerability, particularly in the areas of food, nutrition and health,” Ms. Amos said.

The UN humanitarian chief, who visited Niger earlier this month, stressed the “critical” need to support Niger’s recovery activities by addressing the country’s structural problems, including high population growth and low capacity to achieve the poverty reduction and social improvement targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Supporting Niger’s efforts to provide education and programmes aimed at raising gender equality would help the country reduce social vulnerabilities, Ms. Amos said, adding that the country was also in need of help to adapt to the effects of climate change, which has made it and its neighbours in West Africa’s Sahel region prone to recurring droughts.

“Niger is by all indicators one of the poorest countries in the world, if not the poorest. Until the longer-term development needs are addressed, we will continue to see issues around food insecurity not just in Niger but in the wider Sahel region,” Ms. Amos said.

Niger has faced periodic food crises in the past three decades, with the last occurring in 2005, when more than 3 million people were threatened by severe hunger.